The present invention relates generally to crop harvesting apparatus utilized for working windrows of crop material and, more particularly, to a machine operable to selectively invert or laterally shift a windrow of crop material without inversion to decrease the drying time thereof.
Various attempts to provide an apparatus to work a windrow of crop material, such as hay, have been provided in an attempt to decrease the time necessary to dry the crop material in the windrow so that further harvesting operations, such as baling, can be accomplished to remove the crop material from the field. Such prior art devices have attempted to invert the windrow of crop material so that the damp side thereof which was originally positioned adjacent the ground will be placed on top of the windrow to facilitate drying by the sun and air. Drying time can be further reduced by laterally displacing the windrow in addition to inverting it so that the dry side originally on top of the windrow is placed upon dry ground in a second path laterally displaced from the original path of the windrow.
In certain areas of the country, the drying action of the sun is so severe as to bleach the upper exposed portion of the windrow, even though the unexposed lower portion of the windrow adjacent the ground may still be damp. It is sufficient in such cases to shift the windrow over to fresh dry ground without inverting the windrow. Shifting will result in the sufficient drying of the lower damp portions of the windrow, yet will not expose this unbleached lower damp portion to the bleaching action of the sun. Excessive bleaching of the crop material in the windrow will lower the quality of the crop, resulting in lower prices therefor.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a single machine for working windrows of crop material that could laterally shift the windrow while optionally permitting an inversion or non-inversion of the windrow at the desire of the operator.